The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for making a patty of proteinaceous material, and more particularly to a patty making apparatus which incorporates a conveyor belt assembly that traverses a path substantially throughout the entire horizontal longitudinal extent of the apparatus, including a location below the assembly which forms the proteinaceous patties in order to impart a pass-through aspect to the apparatus. This pass-through aspect of the apparatus facilitates depositing each proteinaceous patty as it is made onto an item such as another proteinaceous patty and the like that was deposited onto the conveyor belt assembly at a location generally upstream of the apparatus, such being particularly useful in conjunction with food processing, particularly the assembly of composite food products including a proteinaceous patty stacked onto another proteinaceous patty and/or other food items.
Various devices are available commercially for preparing shaped patties out of proteinaceous material, typically ground, flaked or shredded meats, fish, poultry and/or vegetables. These proteinaceous materials are of a type that, when suitably positioned within a mold and generally subjected to compressive forces, will form into a desired shape or patty. Usually, such proteinaceous materials are filled into a hopper and suitably fed to a molding station which forms the patty. In most situations, the molding station deposits the formed patty by dropping same onto a suitable platform, which can include a moving conveyor.
In the past, when such patty making machines deposited onto a conveyor, the conveyor belt flow path initiates within the machine, and the conveyor moves the proteinaceous patties away from the machine for subsequent processing of the patties, typically for freezing same. Machines of this type, while being quite suitable for forming proteinaceous patties which are subsequently processed, cannot be used for depositing proteinaceous patties onto another item that is being automatically supplied by another machine or device and continuously deposited onto the moving conveyor belt. When it is desired to manufacture a product including a proteinaceous patty which is not the bottommost member of the item, these types of patty making machines are not suitable if it is desired to assemble the item on an automatic and continuous basis.
The present invention permits such automatic and continuous assembly operations which include the forming and depositing of a proteinaceous patty onto another food product or the like by providing a patty making apparatus that, rather than having the conveyor assembly provide its initial outward conveying movement positioned within the apparatus, provides a conveyor assembly having a conveyor pathway fully through the entire generally horizontal length of the apparatus such that the conveyor pathway is initiated at a generally upstream location with respect to the apparatus, which pathway continues through the apparatus to the location at which the proteinaceous patties are deposited from the patty forming station and then continues beyond this patty depositing location and in a direction away from or downstream of the apparatus.
Included in the features that are provided by the present invention for achieving this type of pass-through function is to provide a generally horizontally oriented tunnel assembly through the cabinet which houses components for driving the patty forming assembly. The conveyor belt assembly has its conveying pathway pass through the tunnel in a direction toward the patty depositing location, which pathway continues beyond the patty depositing location for conveying products out of the apparatus. Preferably, the conveyor belt assembly has associated therewith a suitable timing arrangement for having each deposited patty drop, in suitably aligned fashion, onto one of a series of items that had been positioned onto the pass-through conveyor path upstream of the apparatus.
It is accordingly a general object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for continuously making and depositing patties of proteinaceous material that are continuously deposited onto previously formed items.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved pass-through proteinaceous patty making apparatus that provides for a conveyor pathway completely through its longitudinal extent.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved proteinaceous patty making machine having pass-through and timing capabilities whereby proteinaceous patties formed by the machine are deposited in properly sequenced fashion with respect to a sequence of previously formed items as they flow through the apparatus.
These and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be clearly understood through a consideration of the following detailed description.